It is known that due to the so called Green House effect, a cabin of a vehicle can be subject to temperatures greater than seventy degrees Celsius (70° C.) while parked in sunlight. Such cabin temperatures cause significant discomfort to occupants of the vehicle when initially entering the cabin and during the initial driving period. For some vehicles, full cabin comfort may only be achieved after driving for thirty minutes. As such, a vehicle air conditioning system is typically sized with excess capacity in order to quickly cool the cabin to a comfortable temperature. However, the mechanical load of the air conditioning system running at maximum undesirably consumes excessive energy that reduces the driving range of a Battery Electrical Vehicle (BEV), or causes extra engine emissions by an Internal Combustion (IC) engine of a conventional vehicle.
Various techniques to ventilate the vehicle cabin during soak to reduce the cabin temperature have been proposed. During the late 1990s, National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) demonstrated the effect cabin ventilation had on cabin temperature during hot soak conditions. In SAE Paper No. 2007-01-1194 by Rugh et al. of NREL, a bank of six ventilation fans were installed in the sunroof to provide cabin ventilation. However, the NREL configuration undesirably adds cost to the overall air conditioning system.